


And suddenly I realised, I love you.

by Lerya



Series: Lerya's big bag of one-shots [21]
Category: One Piece
Genre: F/M, It's sweet, Miscommunication, Realisation, Sabo leaves gifts, and dorky, but what esle is new, he got tips from Ace, oblivious idiots, to woo Koala
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28986645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lerya/pseuds/Lerya
Summary: When Koala walked into the kitchen, dressed in nothing but her PJ's, clutching a cup of coffee, Sabo suddenly realised she was the most beautiful person he knew - and subsequently realised he had been in love with her, for A VERY LONG TIME.Que him trying to tell her, without actually telling her (because what could go wrong there).
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco/Portgas D. Ace, Hack & Koala (One Piece), Hack & Sabo (One Piece), Koala/Sabo (One Piece), Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo, Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law
Series: Lerya's big bag of one-shots [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1831972
Kudos: 34
Collections: One Piece Bingo 2020/2021





	And suddenly I realised, I love you.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my way of getting over the emotional hurt I caused myself (and my equally OP obsessed best friend) by writing 'Missing you, hurts so much'. So, went with something funny, fluffy and downright aborable for the prompt 'surprise romance'.

The feelings he had surprised him one morning, at a moment he hadn’t expected them to come forth at all.

After all, he had been working with Koala for years up until this point and had seen her at her best and worst point un until now. Add to that, that he had seen her in several different stages of undress, in different disguises and overall, in several everyday outfits.

So, when Koala came into the kitchen at the headquarters, dressed in nothing but her pyjama’s, he didn’t think anything of it at first, until he started to notice the way her hair fell into her face, the way she yawned every few moments with that cute scrunching up of her nose, and the way she clutched that coffee mug like it was a lifeline.

Then it hit him, he though Koala to be looking cute, adorable even, he liked the way she looked now, and come to think of it, he also liked the way she looked at every other moment, no matter how she was dressed or which character she was forced to play.

And don’t get him started in what he thought about her as a person, she had after all been taken by a slave trader and sold to the Celestial Dragons at a young age, and had held out until Tiger Fisher saved her, so many years ago.

She had stood her on, on a crew full of fishermen – who didn’t like humans because of what had been done to them, but who put up with a little human girl on their ship, until she was back with her parents on her home island.

Of course, soon after, she found out that her parents had sold out her saviours in exchange of being able to keep her, as she was now property of a celestial dragon, which had cost Fisher his life. As soon as she was able, she left it all behind to join the revolutionaries, to fight for what is right, and to put an end to the barbaric practices the Celestial Dragons called their own.

In short, she was a very strong, very independent woman, who had a mindset quite like his own. Who had seen the way the world worked and didn’t like it, so she would do anything in her power to stop it from going on any longer.

A besotted grin appeared on his face, as he grinned even wider as Koala looked at him, a perplexed look on her face as she looked at him as he walked out of the kitchen, before looking at Hak, who had been seated there all along.

“What was that?”

Hak hummed, “if I were to guess, I think that was Sabo finally figuring out he had a crush on you for the past 5 years or so.”

Koala hummed, before the words really reached her and she screeched, “what!?”

Hak snorted, “don’t tell my you have been just as oblivious as he is, Koala-chan? You both do your best work together, hang out every time you don’t have a mission and look besotted at the other every time the other isn’t watching – it isn’t exactly subtle.”

Koala blushed up until the roots of her hair, mumbling, while looking away, “it isn’t like that.”

Which caused Hak to snort once more, even though he didn’t say anything else about it.

Koala stayed pouting as she finished her coffee and left the kitchen to get dressed, there was a lot of things to do today, and she wanted to make it as productive as possible. Even if Hak had put a whole other set of thoughts in her mind, she didn’t want to think too much about that.

When she had first arrived at the Revolutionaries, Sabo had already been there for a few years. She had found him attractive, even then, and had tried to let it show, but every time she did – he wouldn’t respond or tell her he liked her as his friend – not a possible love interest.

Shaking her head, she locked away thoughts and tried to forget Hak’s words as a way the older man making a little bit of fun of her, which she could take. She had put her feelings behind her, there was no way that Sabo now suddenly, after almost 7 years realised that he did return her feelings – ne way was she getting her hopes up to look for signals that wouldn’t be there.

Yet, the thoughts wouldn’t leave her head, not when Sabo suddenly started smiling more at her – that full blown smile he usually only reserved for Luffy or Ace, directed solely at her, or the way he made sure to sit next to her in the mess hall or the kitchen, depending on where they were, ever time they had a meal.

It got worse, when she would find little trinkets they had spotted at a mall, a shop or even the beach – that she mentioned she liked, and suddenly they would appear on her bedside table – left there on purpose to please her. Only she refused to believe that it couldn’t be that boys were this slow on the uptake, now were they?

Sighing, she scowled as she looks at the book that had been left on her bedside table, it had been in a shop they had visited today – it was an old book full of children’s tales, more notably about fisherman children’s tales and she loved the culture of the people that had saved her from Mary Geoise. But this was getting out of hand.

With a deepening scowl, she grabbed the book and made her way to Sabo’s room, throwing open the door and throwing the book at him while she was at it.

“What is this?”

Sabo grinned at her as he held out the book, “it’s that book you told me you liked, so I went back and got it for you!”

Koala frowned, “why?”

Sabo blinked, before he looked around a few times, anywhere but her face, and swallowed thickly, “isn’t that what girls like, to be getting things they like?”

Koala sighed, “they do, if they know the meaning behind it. Because from my point of view, this is kind of disturbing, you leaving all kinds of things on my bedside table.”

Sabo held up his hands and shook his head, “that isn’t the message I tried to get across at all.”

Sighing, he said softly, “I’m sorry.”

Koala shook her head, “that’s okay, but I would like to know the reason you’re leaving all these things behind for me to find.”

The blond started blushing, mumbling something that Koala didn’t understand.

“What was that?”

The redness didn’t recede, but Sabo sighed, and said once more – louder this time, “I really like you, but I didn’t know how to tell you that – so instead I thought I should show you.”

Koala couldn’t help but gape at that, so it would seem that boys could be so slow on the uptake, who knew.

“I see…”

Sabo swallowed thickly once more, “don’t you… Do you want me to stop?”

Koala sighed, “do you remember when I first got here, and I kept following you around, smiling at everything you said and did. And the way I would praise just about everything you did, bring you food and water after training and those kinds of things?”

Sabo frowned, but nodded, “I remember.”

Koala sighed once more, “that was me trying to show you how I felt. Hak told me, a few weeks ago in the kitchen that you had finally figured out that you liked me, and I didn’t want to believe him – having been trying to close that chapter of my life when it seemed you weren’t that into me.

So, to find out that you suddenly are, was puzzling, and made me confused as to what I had to believe of it. At first, I thought you, or Hak, were playing a prank on me. It’s why I stormed in here to find some answers.”

Looking up, she saw Sabo looking at her with a look of realisation in his eyes, “you like me too?”

She snorted, “that’s what you take away from all that? Yes, I like you too, you dork, I just didn’t think it would take you this long to figure out you felt the same way.”

Sabo grinned widely at that, “blame most of my childhood, I was raised as a wild forest boy, you know – we didn’t have time for feelings and knowing how to let the other person know you were interested in them.”

Koala huffed, “last I checked Ace and Luffy did a splendid job in telling Marco and Law they were head over heels with them.”

Blushing again, Sabo hummed, “yeah well, I’m the smart brother, who isn’t as much of a spontaneous talker as both of them are, I swear they both just say whatever it is they think or feel. I never do that.”

Koala laughed, “maybe you should, would have made this all a whole lot easier.”

Sabo snorted, “maybe I won’t tell, but I can show you none the less, if you’d let me?”

Koala giggled but let him pull her towards him… and the kiss that followed was everything she wanted it to be.


End file.
